


Bound

by Ivillpunchyouinthethroat



Series: Sellswords [2]
Category: VIXX
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Angst, Feelings, M/M, Mercenaries, Miscommunication, Misunderstandings, Original Character(s), Pining, Samurai, Smut, Violence
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-30
Updated: 2017-02-07
Packaged: 2018-09-13 09:34:26
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 16,800
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9117970
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ivillpunchyouinthethroat/pseuds/Ivillpunchyouinthethroat
Summary: He didn’t know what made the man stop.He’d made no noise, didn’t have the strength to, and his breathing was still the same soft rasp that had allowed him to escape the notice of the rare surviving soldier that passed his way, faint enough to be drowned out by the nature around him.But the man had stopped and he’d turned and he’d locked pitch dark eyes onto him, and at that moment Ravi had been certain.He would die here.





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

  * For [innocentcrotchcloth](https://archiveofourown.org/users/innocentcrotchcloth/gifts).



> I present to you, Ravi's perspective of They Were Sellswords, except, not quite yet.....
> 
> You see I told myself this would only be as long or a bit longer than They Were Sellswords, I _told_ myself I wouldn't get carried away- but then I was 4 pages in and Leo hadn't even been introduced and aoigjaoijgaeog
> 
> So this became a multi-chaptered thing with a prologue (this chapter) before the events of They Were Sellswords actually begin (next chapter).
> 
> Hope you enjoy my inability to not keep typing!
> 
> PS- If you're new, welcome! But, you also might want to read They Were Sellswords first as this will only sort of make sense without having done that.
> 
> And as before, for the best human.

They were sellswords, that was their life.

It had been their life before they’d met and it was the only reason they had ever crossed paths in the first place.

***

It had been a careless mistake—well not so much a mistake as Ravi’s own thoughtless stupidity—but the kid was so young, too young to be a mercenary already without there being a probably unpleasant reason for it. He reminded Ravi of himself at that age, nothing but reckless aggression; too angry to care all that much if he survived this fight or the next.

That’s probably why he’d warmed up to him so well if Ravi was honest with himself; why he’d gone out of his way to befriend a fellow mercenary in the weeks they’d known each other before this battle.

And the kid had been _good_ , that much he’d been able to tell in their practice sparring, so Ravi hadn’t been all that worried about him as the battle had begun and he’d lost himself in the thick of it, mind reduced to nothing but blocking the next swing, evading a stab, counter-attacking where he could—

Until his current opponent fell before him, throat cut, and in the space his falling body left Ravi saw the kid loose his footing as he blocked a stroke only seconds too late to be effective from an opponent two times his size.

The force behind the swing was evident in the clang and then drag of steel on steel that Ravi was able to hear even above the din of chaos around him as the enemy’s swords scraped off the kid’s and gashed across his sword arm. The kid let out a grunt of pain as he went down with the force.

 _Fuck_ , Ravi managed to think as he all but sprinted towards the scene. He arrived in time to take care of their enemy and that was when he’d made his mistake, the one mistake he’d had ingrained into his brain since he’d first learned how to pick up a sword.

Do not turn your back to an opponent, ever.

He’d turned around to check on the kid, make sure he was alright, help him up, and he’d just been looking over his wounded arm, concluding that he wouldn’t be able to pick up a sword again anytime soon and _fuck, how is he going to survive the rest of this battle_ when the kid had reached for him, eyes wide, mouth calling,

“Ravi watch—”

And then Ravi had felt searing pain across his back and the floor had come up to meet him at dizzying speed.

He’d been disoriented for a few seconds, not quite sure what was happening but he managed to take in the kid picking up his knocked away sword from the ground with his left hand—his sword arm useless at his side as Ravi had been afraid of—and make a swing at whoever was behind Ravi.

Right, whoever was behind him, they were probably the cause of the throbbing pain at his back.

 _Fuck._ Ravi thought again.

The kid’s swing had been haphazard at best, and it was undoubtedly only the surprise of having someone the opponent hadn’t seen behind Ravi spring at him unexpectedly that it connected. Ravi heard the squelch of sword biting into flesh and then a thump as whoever it was hit the ground behind him.

The kid turned to him as soon as their opponent went down.

“Shit—shit, fuck Ravi, what the fuck—what am I—“

The kid was babbling, and Ravi needed to tell him to calm down, to calm down a leave him, because there was nothing he was going to be able to do for Ravi now. His back was nothing but pain, he wasn’t going to be able to stand, he was as good as dead.

The kid needed to leave before someone else noticed them again, they’d already been lucky that they’d somehow ended up towards the edge of the battle and the only opponent who _had_ noticed them was dead at Ravi’s feet. He’d just opened his mouth to let the kid know this when the kid suddenly grabbed his arm and began pulling and Ravi’s back exploded into more pain than he thought it was possible to feel.

He managed only to keep his hand around his sword as the kid continued to drag him away from the battle, and it took every ounce of effort he had not to open his mouth and _scream_ and draw more attention to themselves than they’d somehow already avoided. Instead, he managed to utter out a broken, “What—the _fuck_ are you doing _?_ ”

“The hell does it look like I’m doing, I’m not leaving you there to die.”

Ravi’s mind was hazing in and out of coherency and he wasn’t able to make his mouth move to respond until the kid _finally_ stopped pulling and in the temporary relief the lack of movement offered his back he realized that the kid had managed to drag him under the cover of the trees that surrounded the clearing where their battle was taking place.

The battle still raged on nearby but under the shadow of the trees around them, it didn’t seem like anyone had noticed their escape.

“Stay here until the battle is done, I’ll come find you afterwards.”

And with that the kid stood up, seeming ready to make his way back to battle, but before he could take a step Ravi’s hand shot out to grab his ankle.

“Are you fucking insane, you can barely grab a sword! You’re not going to last five minutes in there fighting with your left hand!”

“Are you telling me to leave? As long as I’m still breathing I can still fight, I’m not abandoning a battle I swore myself to, it’s dishonorable!”

Ravi couldn’t help but laugh darkly at that.

“Honor? Do you think anybody expects honor from _you_ kid? You’re a mercenary; the lord who hired us won’t care either way if either of us lives or dies. In fact he probably wants us dead, one less man to pay after the battle ends.”

“I can’t just leave! And what about you, I can’t just abandon _you.”_

“You don’t owe me anything.”

“No—no! I’m not leaving anybody else behind—”

“I’m as good as dead kid, you won’t be leaving me behind.”  

“But—”

The kid seemed adamant, stubbornness set in his eyes.

“Leave. You’ll die if you go back there and your life is worth more than our Lord’s petty territory dispute. You can’t stay with me either; you’ve done all you can for me, no sense in both of us dying.”

He could see the kid preparing to argue with him again, so he continued.

“Besides you can’t really find him if you end up dead here now can ya kid.”

Ravi saw him stiffen at that, knew he had him but pressed on just to be sure.

“Hongbin’s waiting out there somewhere for you Hyuk. You promised.”

Hyuk seemed close to tears now, eyes glittering, jaw tense.

“ _Fuck!”_ He growled out in despair. “You better not fucking die Ravi, you hear me! You better survive somehow!”

Ravi managed to chuckle even if the pain at his back had done nothing but worsen as they’d argued.

“Yeah, yeah kid, now get the fuck out of here.”

***

It’d been hours since Hyuk had left and the battle seemed like it was finally close to finishing as the afternoon passed into evening.

Still, no one had noticed him yet and Ravi was a bit surprised at that, he was usually never so lucky.

 _Some twisted sort luck though_ Ravi thought grimly, his wound was still bleeding, it hadn’t stopped in all this time; at least the pain had lessened although that was probably due more to the blood loss and shock than any actual improvement.

_I’ll be dead as soon as I close my eyes, won’t I?_

Unconsciousness pulled him under soon after.

He dreamed of Evey.


	2. Bound

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Remember when I mentioned my inability to not keeping typing?

There was blood.

There was always so much when he dreamed of sister.

There’d been enough blood as he watched her die but every time he thought of her afterwards there was always more and more added in, as if his mind needed to make more gruesome a memory that was already dripping in red.

The raiders had attacked at midnight when most of his village had been asleep and when the farmers they deemed to call soldiers that patrolled their gate had already succumbed to slumber as well.

They were a poor village and they’d always counted on that and on the terrain surrounding them to keep them safe, but they had crops and they had women and that had always been more than enough for raiders to come _take_.

Ravi had woken to screams and the red flickers of fire through his window as his sister had rushed into his room, their grandfather’s old sword still sheathed in hand and silk brown hair whipping behind her as she yelled at him to get up because they had to leave _right now._

But he’d been an adolescent who thought himself an adult and he’d tried to take their grandfather’s sword from her because their parents had long ago died and Evey was all Ravi had. He would protect _her_ as a brother should.

Evey had just yanked the sword away and taken his hand and _run._

They’d crossed their village and it was chaos; everywhere he turned there were men with weapons and there was so many bodies, it was everyone Ravi had ever known in his entire life and they were all lying _dead_.

They’d made to the edge of the woods somehow, path lit by the large moon above them and Ravi had just begun thinking that maybe they’d be okay, maybe no one had seen them when he heard the rough shouts of men say something about a woman running into the woods.

He felt Evey’s hand tighten painfully over his.

They ran and they heard the men run after them, their torches pinpricks of light in the woods as they followed their trail. Eventually they reached the little stone hut that the people of his village had managed to build as a temple for good crops.

They entered and had been immediately engulfed by darkness, the only light the swathe of silver that came in through the open entrance and the only two windows in the building.

Evey had tightened her grip on their grandfather’s sword and grabbed him tightly by a shoulder with the other, “Ravi I don’t think they’ve seen you, they don’t know you’re with me, go and hide in the alter and do not come out for _anything_ no matter what you hear, do you hear me?”

Ravi saw the determination in her eyes and his own eyes widened because he knew what she was going to do.

“No, Evey no! We can still run, we can—”

“Ravi listen to me!” Her voice was pitched high and desperate now, there was a fear in it he’d never heard before.  “They will _kill us both_ if they find us do you understand me! We can’t outrun them, you have to hide, _right now!”_

But Ravi was an adolescent who thought himself an adult and he would not let his sister die for him. He tried to grab the sword again.

“I won’t let you die for me—”

Evey slapped him and as he’d still reeled in shock she’d hugged him fiercely.

“Ravi, one of us has a chance to make it out of here alive, and gods help me that someone will be you. I promised our mother that I would always protect you, that I would never let _anything_ happen to you if it was in my power and I intend to keep that promise. I _swore_ that to her Ravi.”

Evey had pulled back and there where tears in her eyes, her body shaking in fear as she’d led a shocked Ravi to the sizable alter that doubled as the supplies chest for the candles and incense of their temple. She opened the stone lid with a grunt of effort.

“Now you swear to me Ravi, that you will not leave this altar no matter what you hear, _swear it to me!_ ”  

“Evey, I can’t—”

They could hear the shouts of men draw nearer.

“Please Ravi, _please,_ I’m scared, gods I’m so scared but I _need_ to know that you’ll stay here, I need to know that you’ll be safe no matter what happens to me. _Please Ravi,_ don’t make me do this for nothing.”

He’d only been able to nod mutely before they’d heard the clatter of boots on the stone steps that led up to the entrance of the altar.

She’d helped him inside and closed the lid, but as Ravi kneeled in the stone box he’d found that the lid didn’t close all the way and he had a thin sliver of sight between the lid and the rest of the altar. Through that sliver he saw his sister pull their grandfather’s sword out of its scabbard and throw the sheath to one side.

The men came in soon after, five of them in total, their torches throwing bright illumination into the small stone space around them.

Evey stood in the center of it, the torchlight reflecting off the drawn blade she held in hand.

They’d laughed at her and they eyed her as evil men do and they told her all the things they would do to her. Evey had stayed silent, face set in stone as they laughed and hollered and when the first man approached expecting nothing from a young girl holding a sword so tightly that it trembled in her grasp she’d swung and the man’s arm had spurted blood, sliced clean to the bone, and as he’d yelled in shock Evey had sliced his throat.

And Ravi had smiled, because Evey was strong, the strongest woman he knew, and she was _fierce_ and maybe Evey would be alright, maybe it would all be okay—

And then one of the men had advanced, face contorted in rage and his sword had ran through Evey’s stomach.

She didn’t even get a chance to scream before they’d all descended on her and they were _cruel._ Ravi would never forget what the dull thud of boots against flesh sounded like or the crack of broken bones—

And he would _never_ forget the sights that all those sounds belonged to, how some of the men had leered at her as they sunk blades in, laughed at her screams when they cracked her fingers—

Ravi had to turn away at that, head held in his hands, nails digging into his scalp as tears streamed down his face and he couldn’t watch that _hecouldn’thecoudn’thecouldn’t—_

He had to help, _he had to,_ but he swore, and if he left he _would have killed his sister for nothing._

They left after an eternity and then there was silence.

And Ravi was a coward because he didn’t want leave his stone box, he didn’t want to see his sister, not like that.

It was another eternity before he finally opened the altar, hands shaking under the strain of the stone lid.

There was so much blood.

Her long brown hair floated in it, fanning out around her death pale face in beautiful swirls, swayed slowly by the blood that still drained from her body. He’d moved to kneel before her and his robes soaked in red as he looked into cloudy grey eyes that gazed unmoving and unblinking at the ceiling. His hands smeared ruby as he’d taken her face in them—a face now marred, swollen purple and black—and called out in his small child’s voice, made even smaller and more pathetic by the terror he still felt and the tears still fresh on his face.

“Evey….?”

But she was dead, and Ravi felt something shift inside him because suddenly he stopped feeling and he went _numb_.

He grabbed his grandfather’s sword from where it’d fallen from her grasp, grabbed the scabbard and sheathed it. He bent down and laid a kiss to his sister’s forehead, closed her eyes and tried to move her arms across her chest but found he couldn’t—they’d been too badly broken.

He’d felt a twinge of emotion at that but was too far gone for it to register.

He walked outside and noticed that the sky was barely beginning lighten and he walked aimlessly into the woods, his grandfather’s sword trailing behind him.

He only walked a few yards before he’d knelt and vomited. He passed out after.

When he woke it was to darkening skies and somebody trying to pull his grandfather’s sword out of his hands.He looked up and into the hardened eyes of a man who had a sword hung at his side.

Suddenly, Ravi was no longer numb.

He lunged at the man shouting in rage, going for his face with his hands _and he needed to hurt them needed to hurt the men who hurt Evey—_

But the stranger had batted his attack away almost effortlessly. He’d grabbed Ravi’s flailing hands and pinned him to the ground and spoken out in a rough voice.

“Calm yourself kid, we’re not your enemy.”

But Ravi had still twisted in his grasp, nothing but blind fury in his eyes, animal noises tearing from his throat.

The man spoke again, “You’re from the sacked village down below right? Listen we’re not the ones who attacked it.”

_We?_

In his rage Ravi was barely able to make out another two men behind him.

He still struggled.

“Listen to me! We didn’t sack your village, look at us! We show no signs of battle, our swords show no signs of use.”

The man told the other men behind him to take out their swords and it was true, they were clean and nick free. As Ravi finally began calming down he also noticed that these men looked nothing like the raiders he’d seen at the temple. Those raiders had been rugged mountain men, with axes as well as swords and patchwork armor made of leather and steel. These men wore no armor over their robes and their blades were those of swordsman, not the heavy blades of bandits.

“Why are you here?” Ravi spoke with a voice as raw as he felt.

“We saw the smoke in the morning, came to check out what happened, when we saw your village had been sacked we began looking for survivors. So far, it seems like you’re the only one.”

He was the only one?

Out of his entire village, he was the only one who was still alive?

And Evey, she was—she was still in the temple, he’d just—he’d just left her there—

“Oh gods, my sister, I have to go back for my sister!”

This time the man had let him go and he scrambled up and ran back towards the temple, the men following behind him.

He found  her exactly like he’d left her and he heard one of the men begin retching behind him as he entered the building and saw her body.

They helped him bury her outside and they didn’t finish until the sky had already darkened into night.

Ravi had kneeled in front of her grave, mute, grandfather’s sword in hand. The man whose face he’d first woke up to came kneel beside at some point and Ravi had instinctively clutched onto his sword all the tighter.

“I’m not going to steal it kid, you were covered in so much blood I thought you were dead, no sense in letting a perfectly good sword go to waste.”

Ravi had stayed silent, looking at the fresh turned earth before him.

“Hey, kid.” It took Ravi a few minutes but he’d finally turned to look up at the man.

The man looked down at him with sadness and pity and all other sorts of emotions swirling in his eyes but then they’d cleared and hardened in some sort of resolve and he continued.

“How’d you like to learn to use that sword of yours?”

***

Ravi opened his eyes to sunlight trying its best to stab into his brain.

So he wasn’t dead.

But at the constant pain his back had once again become, at the sight of the blood soaked dirt all around him and at the labored breaths that were the only things his lungs seemed capable of taking, Ravi almost wished he was.

Better to have passed away in sleep than have to face reality once more, especially with nothing but the memory of Evey to keep him company as the life bled out of him.And it was probably that, the concrete knowledge that he was actually dying, that’d made him dream of her.

A thought came to his mind then, that if—or rather when—he died, maybe, just _maybe,_ he’d have the chance to see his sister again….but he dismissed the thought almost as soon it formed, would have laughed at himself if he could have mustered the energy to.

Whatever hell a man like him had waiting at the end of his life, he was damn sure he wouldn’t find his sister there.

But Hyuk was safe (or at least Ravi was going to cling to the thought that he was) and the battle was done; at least there was that.

Now, all Ravi could do was wait.

***

He didn’t know what made the man stop.

He’d made no noise, didn’t have the strength to, and his breathing was still the same soft rasp that had allowed him to escape the notice of the rare surviving soldier that passed his way, faint enough to be drowned out by the nature around him.  

But the man had stopped, and he’d turned and he’d locked pitch dark eyes onto him and at that moment Ravi had been certain.

He would die here.

Because those were eyes that had seen many battles, eyes that had taken many lives. Eyes that were cold enough to match the icy aura this man radiated, all pale smooth features, delicate in a way that would lead one to think he did not know how wield the blade hung at his side.

But those eyes spoke of something else, they betrayed what lay beneath.

This stranger—with his porcelain skin and deep dark eyes—was death.

But never in all his life had Ravi known death to be so _beautiful._

Ravi had seen more than enough death—had been dealt it at a young age with Evey and had been the one to deal it from then on—and it was always something desperate and ugly, washed red with blood and fear and anger. Yet this beautiful stranger now walked towards him, his footsteps sounding out as Ravi’s own death tolls and Ravi felt _nothing_ but an almost sense of—of awe _._

But he _knew_ he was going to die; there was no doubt of that.

This stranger was a soldier, he a wounded enemy left on the field, there was only one option this stranger had at his disposal and it involved a blade to Ravi’s neck. But the desperation Ravi always thought would accompany the last few moments of his life was nowhere to be found and instead he felt something else start welling within him.

It was with a strange sense of acceptance that he’d never imagined would preclude his own death –not with the life he lived— that as the stranger knelt before him Ravi had closed his eyes to wait.

This beautiful grim reaper would take his life and Ravi could not find it in him to be afraid.  

But instead, the man spoke, and Ravi almost couldn’t believe the words he said, didn’t believe them really, not until the man sprinkled something on his back that made the dulled pain of his wound flare up as if he’d received the blow all over again, not until he deposited bitter tasting leaves in his mouth, icy cold fingertips ghosting over his lips.

It wasn’t until he felt the unnatural tendrils of induced sleep start tugging at his mind and he met the strangers pitch black eyes one last time that Ravi let himself think,

_This beautiful grim reaper, he’s not taking my life, he’s saving it._

***

He woke as he was being transferred from a horse and into a home and he’d barely been able to focus enough against the searing _agony_ that his mind had become to remember that the stranger had spoken of a healer.

The same stranger who was right there at his side.

He’d shot a hand out, grabbed blindly onto the dark robes of the man who’d spared him his life, made his dark eyes a focal point against the rippling waves of pain that his back had become and had gritted out—

“My name—is Ravi,” just as his mind went white static with pain.

If he died before he woke, he wanted his grim reaper to know that, at least. 

***

He survived.

The old healer who greeted him upon waking told him that it was almost a miracle that he hadn’t died because he’d been half dead already when his friend had brought him here sporting such a horrible wound . But the miracle didn’t stop there because against all expectations (the healer’s certainly) he also looked like he was going to make a full recovery, would probably be able to wield a sword again in a few weeks’ time even.

Once again, Ravi thought, he was never so lucky.

But he knew who he owed his luck to and once he’d asked the healer what had happened to the man who’d brought him here, he knew what he had to do.

He owed his life to that porcelain skinned grim reaper and there was only one thing he owned worth the repayment of that debt.

***

Leo, as he learned his grim reaper was named, accepted his repayment surprisingly quickly. Ravi did not know whether this should have surprised him or not.

Still, he had an entire lifetime ahead of him with this man and for some reason—even with the possibility of Leo being nothing but the cold death dealer Ravi had first assumed him to be—the thought was not as daunting as it could have been.

***

Ravi learned soon later that he’d been right in only in _most_ of his first assumptions about Leo.

Leo had seen many battles, and had, in fact, taken many lives, he learned this the first time they saw battle together.

It had been a small job, taking out a bandit crew that’d been raiding nearby villages. It was his first battle alongside the man that he’d sworn his life to and while he wasn’t nervous per say, there was still a sort of uncertainty lingering underneath the confidence he had in his own abilities and the abilities that he assumed Leo to have (assumed mostly because of what he’d seen in the man’s eyes but also because he had escaped completely unscathed a battle in which Ravi had almost died in).

The fight itself had been short, all but one of the bandits nothing but ordinary men with very little combat training, turned to thievery more by necessity probably than anything else. As Ravi had taken down his last opponent he’d turned in time to see Leo engage the only man who seemed to know how to truly wield a sword.

Later on Ravi would be thankful that he’d managed to take down the rest of the bandits before he’d turned to Leo because as he watched him battle, nothing short of a blade to the gut would have taken his eyes away from the scene before him.

Leo moved with a grace that Ravi had seen only in very few swordsmen throughout his travels, and he’d seen _many_.

He was nothing but pure fluidity, wielding his sword in a way that made it seem like the blade was an extension of Leo’s own self, with an effortlessness that could only be achieved through years of practice or enough natural talent in the art of swordplay that it _was_ actually as easy as it looked for Leo to move the way he did.

As Leo’s sword sunk cleanly into the body of the man before him, his marble cut features immovable as the bandit gurgled nonsensically before collapsing to the ground, Ravi had been reminded again of the first time he’d laid eyes on Leo.

Leo was mesmerizing and he was death, and never in all his life had Ravi known death to be so beautiful.

***

Ravi had been wrong in one thing however.

Leo was not as cold as he had first assumed him to be, a few months travel with the man and Ravi had been certain of that.

He’d begun noticing almost right away, as quickly as the end of their first battle when Leo had gone to collect their pay from the village elder who’d hired them to take care of the bandits.

As Ravi waited for Leo’s return, he’d already prepared himself to receive no pay whatsoever or, if he was compensated, at most a very small portion of the total sum they’d been owed. Leo was, after all, under no obligation to recompense him for services that Ravi had sworn to him freely already.

But when Leo had finally returned, he’d taken the coin purse he’d been given, dumped it out, divided the contents evenly and handed Ravi over half.

Ravi had gaped unsure of what to say and Leo had taken the silence to murmur out in that soft dulcet tone of his,

“Your life was at risk the same as mine and I place no higher value on my own than I do yours.”

Ravi had been even more stunned a Leo’s words than at his willingness to share his pay.

Ravi had pledged his life to Leo, he _belonged_ to him, by the inherent nature of master and subordinate Ravi’s life _was_ worth much less than Leo’s, but here was Leo saying that he thought of Ravi as an equal even when Ravi was obligated to take a sword for Leo should Leo order it.

Ravi had taken his portion of the pay, still in shocked silence, but as he deposited them in his own coin bag he had not been able to stop the hesitant smile that made its way onto his lips.

Leo, he was kind.

***

The next incident happened a couple months later, as they’d entered a small city.

They’d been weary from weeks of travel and still had a few more to go until they reached their ultimate destination; the household of a nobleman who was hiring sellswords as bodyguards for a months long journey.

They’d been _tired_ and they’d wanted nothing more than a room and bed at whatever place passed for an inn in this city, but as they’d entered the city square they were almost knocked over by two scraggly streetrats as they “bumped” into them.

“Sorry sirs sorry, we’ll look where we’re goin next time, sorry.”    

But Ravi knew how this worked and he only had to reach a hand to the pocket where his coin bag no longer was to know that they’d just been robbed.

“You little brats—” Ravi had begun, ready to give chase to the two kids just as they realized they’d been caught and turned to run. Leo was quicker however, his hands had shot out and he grabbed each kid by the collar before they’d even managed to take two steps away.

“Ravi, grab our coin bags.”

Ravi complied, grabbing their bags out of the kids’ pockets as they squirmed in Leo’s iron grip, still trying to get away.

“We’re sorry, we’re sorry! We didn’t mean to but we’re hungry! We’re sorry!”

No doubt they’d just gotten a better look at their swords, at Leo’s stony features and the bottomless depth of his dark eyes.

Leo’s face was unreadable as always as he kept them in his grip, eyes looking over their tattered clothes, their grubby bodies, the bruises and scrapes they sported. He surveyed them for a good long while and as the time passed even Ravi didn’t know what exactly Leo planned to do with them.

He was probably as surprised as the kids were when Leo opened his mouth only to say, “There was no need to steal, I would have given you the coin if you’d asked for it.”

He turned to Ravi, “Hand me my bag.”

He’d let the kids go as Ravi handed over the bag and the pair seemed ready to split the second something went sour but all Leo did was reach inside his bag and pull out more in coins than anyone _ever_ gave in alms and divide them among the two boys.

“Now, can you tell us where the closest inn where we _won’t_ get robbed is.”

The kids had pointed in a general direction, their eyes still wide in shock at the amount of money Leo had just handed over _after_ they’d just been caught trying to rob him.

They’d found an inn soon after and it was the next day as they were leaving that they’d been met with the same two boys as they’d stepped out through the entrance of the inn. This time however, the boys were accompanied by a small girl no older than 5 or 6 by the look of it, just as dirty as the two boys she was with but wearing a dress that looked slightly less tattered than the rags the boys wore.

One of the boys spoke up when he saw Ravi and Leo walk out, “Ah, we’re reall sorry bout the whole tryin to rob ya thing, but we was able to have a actually have some real food for the first time in a real long time and after we told Tiff here that is was cuz’a  some nice samurai lookin fellow she wouldn’t shut up bout you til she could thank ya herself, so yeah. Hurry up Tiff, theys probably got somewhere important ta go.”

The boy gave the little girl a small shove forward and the little girl walked up to Leo stopping short a foot away. With a shy voice accompanied by a dazzling smile she said,

“Thank you, mister.”

To Ravi’s complete and utter shock Leo did more than just respond, he crouched down, took the little girls hand and for the first time since he’d known him Ravi saw a smile—a _genuine smile—_ break across Leo’s face as he responded.

“You’re very welcome.”

They’d left town but only after Leo had dropped more coin into the kid’s hands.

As they exited the city to continue their journey Ravi found he couldn’t wipe the memory of Leo’s smile from his mind.

He turned to Leo as they walked, took in his cold immovable features , the icy aura of the demon swordsmen of legends that always seemed to radiate from him, but now Ravi knew—

Leo, he was _warm._

***

In all his life Ravi had only experienced true agonizing terror once, when he’d seen the life be beaten out of Evey in splashes of red. After that, any other emotion he’d ever experienced paled in comparison. Not even when he’d lain dying, convinced that death would come when he closed his eyes—not even then had he been _truly_ terrified.

So when he’d walked into just another one of the many battles he and Leo had experienced in their years together—one much like the battle he’d almost lost his life in so long ago— he’d been calm, was still calm as they’d been pressed more and more by their enemies.

And even when he was seconds too late with a parry, when the consequences of his lateness was watching his enemy’s sword on its way to his heart in almost slow motion with no physical way he could stop it in time—knowing he really _was_ going to die this time—not even then had he been more than just a little disappointed, a little regretful.

He’d be leaving Leo all alone in this battle now after all.

It wasn’t until his enemy’s sword landed in Leo’s shoulder instead of his own chest—until he heard Leo’s pained gasp and saw his face contort in pain, until he saw Leo collapse at his feet with a hand over a wound that gushed out crimson between his fingers—that for the first time in a very long, time Ravi was _terrified._

There was no question in mind of what he was to do next, he’d spared Leo only  a glance to make sure he was still breathing and still conscious before he stepped in front of him, only one thought in his mind.

To protect.

Because he’d be damned if he let another person he cared about die before him.

***

They survived the battle somehow, and now he had Leo in his arms, dragging his mostly dead weight across a battlefield strewn with the corpses of soldiers who hadn’t been so lucky.

“You _idiot_! Why the hell did you get in the way! _I’m_ supposed to be your sword and shield not the other way around, what the fuck where you thinking!”

But Leo was half delirious with blood loss already, seeming to be slipping in and out of consciousness as Ravi half carried him to their Lord’s base and the medic tents it offered.

“Shit, no, no come on stay with me Leo.”

He finally reached a tent—the moans of all other wounded soldiers heard only as background noise as he yelled for a doctor—when he suddenly felt Leo’s hand close impossibly tight around his arm. When he turned to face him, Leo’s eyes were surprisingly lucid for the state he’d been in as Ravi had hauled him here.

“I give you your life back, you’re no longer bound to me, you are free.”

He felt Leo’s hand grip impossibly tighter—Ravi wouldn’t be surprised if he found bruises there later— and Ravi knew Leo would not let go until he gave some sort of acknowledgement, so he nodded, terse and simple, and Leo’s hand slipped away as he fell into true unconsciousness.

***

The doctor told him and that Leo lost a lot of blood but that if he survived the night he would probably pull through.

So Ravi sat unmoving, unblinking, beside his bedroll, watching the fitful rise and fall of Leo’s chest, cursing the  moon for its crawling pace across the sky and wishing for the sun to show its face already.

The only thing that kept him company among the soft sighs of Leo’s breathing was his own thoughts, the memory of Leo’s words before he’d been pulled under.

_I’m free am I?_

Ravi recalled Leo falling before him, the clenching he’d felt in his heart at the sight, the absolute _terror_ he’d felt at the mere possibility of Leo dying _,_ terror he hadn’t felt since Evey _._

He chuckled humorlessly; feeling the skin of his face stretch almost painfully from the tightness it held being immobile so long.

_Bullshit, I’m more bound to you than I ever was before._

And Ravi had continued his vigil, hoping that his grim reaper did not fall prey to the very thing he dealt so easily.

***

From the moment Ravi was once again considered his own person it became harder and harder to keep his attraction to Leo under any semblance of control.

And whatever Ravi was feeling, Leo seemed to be feeling at least an inkling of it as well. The atmosphere around them became so suddenly heavy and tense with expectation, _all the time,_ that Ravi knew all that was needed was the barest hint of intention—from either of them—to tip them over the edge of heated stares and into searing lips pressed against each other.

Not that either of them had done such a good job of it beforehand; he’d still belonged to his grim reaper the first time he’d caught Leo looking at him with more than the clam placidity his eyes always reflected.

It had started out slowly, the barest of lingering touches as they treated each other’s wounds, the barest of lingering stares as they unrobed to bath in the streams they came across in their travels. They’d been sparring when Ravi had finally, finally caught such a clear smoldering look of _want_ in Leo’s dark eyes that it’d made something shiver inside him.

He’d been certain he would be called to Leo’s bed soon after that, Leo was his master, after all.

But when weeks and months went by with nothing more than the burning in Leo’s eyes to signify that he _wanted—_ Ravi had only been a bit surprised to learn that Leo’s refusal stirred something within him.

He’d been confused as to why at first and then he’d gone farther than just being confused, he’d been— _frustrated_.

He’d dream of it, sometimes, of Leo finally giving in to what his eyes showed, of Leo beckoning with those smooth slender hands of his, calling him over to his bed, of what that pale cold skin would feel like bare against Ravi’s own heated flesh. Of running his lips over every inch of Leo’s body, of what Leo would sound like as Ravi’s lips dipped lower and lower on his abdomen, if he would gasp out his name in that soft tone of his made even airier as Ravi’s mouth finally—

And he’d always wake up from those dreams in his own bedroll, heated and flustered and _aching_ , with a problem that he always hoped the cold air of morning would take care of before Leo had the chance to notice.

But Leo never asked and Ravi didn’t know if he could bring himself to offer.

He wanted, oh how he _wanted._

But something always stopped him, something in the way Leo refused to give in his to his own desire.

If it was that much of problem for Leo, there must have been a reason.

Maybe Leo was one of those men that held certain qualms about desiring other men, but Ravi honestly doubted it. Maybe he was worried that Ravi would read too much into it, that he’d take Leo’s desire to mean more than just lust (because at the time Ravi had been so sure that it was indeed nothing more than lust), but if that was the case Leo needn’t have been worried.

If all Leo wanted was just sex, Ravi was only a little disappointed in himself to realize he would take what he could get.

At least when it came to Leo, he would gladly take whatever little he was offered. 

***

Ravi was staring at Leo over the fire they’d built in the woods, admiring the way the orange light played with the contours of his face, giving the illusion of warmth to his pale skin that was very seldom there.

He was startled out of his focus by Leo’s soft voice.

“You’re staring, Ravi.”

Ravi only chuckled.

“I guess I was.”

He hadn’t been able to tell exactly, due to the darkness of the night around them and the flickering dance of light and shadow that the fire played on Leo’s features, but he was fairly certain that the corners of Leo’s lips pulled up just a fraction at his words.

***

They’d been traveling for a few days, currently crossing a lengthy span of woods and they’d settled down in a small clearing when the sun began to dip towards the horizon.

It had been a cold day and had gone completely frigid as they sat down to eat the dinner they’d prepared for themselves, thankful that the fire before them fought off the worst of the chill. They were eating in relative silence when Leo spoke, startling Ravi a bit with the subject of his unexpected conversation.

“When I first found you, it was your eyes that persuaded me to save you.”

Ravi hadn’t really known how to respond to that, could only keep his eyes on Leo, watch how the fire added highlights of red onto his night black hair as his equally dark eyes stared into its crackling flames.

Thankfully, Leo didn’t seem like he was waiting for answer, and he continued, eyes never leaving the fire before him.

“You were dying, I could tell, but your eyes….they—they were _alive._ I don’t think I’ve ever seen anybody that close to death—and you know I have seen many—with such a look.  It was your eyes that made me stop. It was the way your eyes clung to life that made me try and save you.”

Ravi still hadn’t known how to respond and again Leo had still not waited for an answer. He’d raised himself from where he sat and began getting ready for bed.

Ravi had stayed where he was for a while longer, still thinking on what it was Leo had said.

 _You saw life_ _in my eyes, did you?_

His mind brought back the memory of that day, as fresh as if it hadn’t happened so long ago.

_But I thought you were going to kill me. I saw death in your eyes and I was not afraid._

Ravi felt his eyebrows incline minimally as he looked over the fire and towards Leo.

 _I stared at_ death _and I was not afraid. Is that what you saw? Is that why you say I clung to_ life _._

But regardless of what Leo saw in Ravi’s eyes and regardless of what Ravi’s had actually held, Ravi was just thankful that it’d been enough to persuade this grim reaper to keep him.

Because now they were here.

After years of battle together, after they’d established a comradery enough for Ravi to still have a place at Leo’s side even after he was no longer bound to him by debt, after they’d gone farther than that comradery into whatever the hell it was they had now—into stares heavy with meaning that neither of them admitted to noticing.

They were here.

Leo was fast asleep by the time Ravi unglued his eyes from the fire and made his way over to his own bedroll.

***

The next day was…strange.

Leo seemed to be uneasy in his own skin after what he’d told Ravi, as if he’ revealed too much of something he hadn’t been sure he’d even wanted to tell his companion in the first place.

To a stranger, Leo’s outward demeanor might not have changed all that much, but Ravi was not a stranger and he could _tell_.

Leo was looking at him differently, with an intensity that made Ravi want to squirm under the scrutiny.

It was as the day progressed, with Leo not uttering so much as a single syllable to address the palpable tension that he’d managed to add to their interactions _on top_ of what they’d already been carrying around with them for months—that Ravi felt about ready to explode if something didn’t happen to alleviate the awkwardness around them.

That something happened that very same night.

They’d set up camp again and had sat down to eat, fire between them and Leo throwing glances over it in Ravi’s direction.

The silence hadn’t been uneasy but it also hadn’t been the comfortable silence that they’d grown so used to do.

Leo finished eating first and cleaned up rather quickly, but instead of preparing for bed like he usually did he walked over to their fire again, full out staring at Ravi this time, a heat in his eyes that was not all from the orange flames that they reflected.

Ravi stared right back and he saw something shift in Leo before he finally spoke.

“Do you—”

But whatever Ravi had unconsciously held his breath for never came because Leo stiffened and the resolve that’d been in his eyes slipped away as he looked down into the fire and instead said, “Goodnight, Ravi” before he hurriedly made his way over to unpack his bedroll.

Ravi stared after him, a little dumbfounded, before the thoughts of the night before came crashing back into his brain.

_We’re here, huh?_

Well here was turning out to be stuck in a permanent state of heated stares and hooded eyes and the space around them practicing sizzling with repressed intention.

But Ravi had given his life to Leo, Leo had taken a blade for him and suddenly Ravi felt the tension snap because he was _done_.

He sprung up hurriedly, made his way over to his bedroll, rolling it out hastily, turned around to catch Leo barely beginning to unpack his.

_Perfect._

He took a breath, trying to settle some of the anxiety that had bubbled up in him despite his determination to settle this once and for all. He cleared his throat and asked, “Hey, since its cold enough to freeze hell over, don’t you think it’d be a good idea to share a bedroll, you know, for body heat?”

Leo turned to him, pitch dark eyes once again reflecting orange from the fire and Ravi could feel goosebumps breaking out across his body.

But, finally, after an eternity, Leo nodded. He put away his own half rolled out bedroll, made sure the fire had enough wood to burn well into the night and padded his way over to Ravi’s.

He’d already removed his outermost robe, leaving him in his thinner inner robes, and Ravi had hurriedly taken care of his own before sliding into his bedroll. Leo slid in soon afterwards, but the second his back had touched the ground, he’d already turned around on his side, offering nothing but his back to the silver-haired swordsman.

Ravi held back a sigh because Leo’s back was the equivalent of a closed door.

And okay, Ravi had wanted this to be settled and now it was settled. Leo was clearly looking for nothing more than sleep in Ravi’s bed and Ravi would follow suit (even though he knew sleep would evade him for a long long time, what with the way he could already feel the heat of Leo’s body seeping into his skin).

He’d just come to terms with this when Leo turned to face him, face so unexpectedly close that he could feel the warmth of Leo’s breath ghost over his mouth with every exhale. His dark eyes betrayed nothing but that same sort of resolve that had been present in them as he’d stood before the fire was back.

Ravi could feel his own heart begin to beat faster and faster the longer Leo stared at him, unmoving…..expecting.

And _that,_ the fact that Leo had so willingly agreed to share a bedroll when they’d slept apart for years and in colder weather, the fact that Ravi was so tired of all the tiptoeing they’d been doing around what both of them so plainly wanted, and most of all, the fact that Leo still had not moved, was still looking at Ravi, was still tense in a way that hardened the lines of his shoulders even as his mouth parted in softness—it made Ravi speak.

“When I first saw _you_ I was convinced you were my own personal grim reaper come to kill me, but by the time you’d kneeled before me I’d figured that being killed by such a beautiful one wouldn’t be the worst way to go.”

Leo’s eyes widened but before he’d taken an inhale Ravi had already crossed the gap between them to crash his lips onto his.

And it was all that was needed because suddenly Leo’s hands were in his hair tugging him closer, fingers fisted in the silver strands with an almost desperation that Ravi never would have imagined from Leo.

Their lips met, reckless as their teeth clacked together before pulling apart only briefly and then coming back again and again, clumsy and dirty and _desperate_ , too hungry after years of waiting for any type of finesse as their bodies scrambled to press as close to each other as they could.  And if Ravi had still been a little uncertain as to what would occur that night, as to how far exactly Leo would want to take things, he needn’t have worried. As their legs tangled together he felt the throbbing hardness that was _Leo_ brush against his thigh and that most miniscule of contact had Leo huffing out a barely perceptible whine into Ravi’s lips ( _fuck,_ Leo had just _whined_ ) as his hips bucked forward helplessly, seeking out the friction of Ravi’s body again.

Ravi couldn’t help but moan at that, as his own fingers found Leo’s dark hair and pulled back none too gently leaving an offering of Leo’s smooth pale neck to his lips and teeth that he took more than willingly. Leo made a chocking noise as Ravi’s teeth found his pulse point and bit down, the fingers of one hand tightening into Ravi’s robes, the other digging blunt fingernails into his back that Ravi could feel even under layers of clothing. 

 _Holy fuck this was happening_ and it was better than Ravi had let himself imagine, so much better than every wet dream he’d had because this was Leo struggling to fucking _breath_ because of the little that Ravi had managed to do to him. This was Leo panting whimpers into Ravi’s ear as he rutted against his thigh almost mindlessly, this was Leo attacking his mouth again, harsh enough to _hurt_ only to lick the sting away whisper out a “ _Please”_ afterwards, Ravi feeling the very vibration of the word break across his lips. It made him harder than he’d ever been in his life even when he’d already been aching and fuck if Ravi knew what the hell Leo was asking for but he would give it to him, he’d give this man anything he ever asked of him—

But Leo was impatient and he whined again as his hands snaked down and started ripping (literally ripping, Ravi could hear the snaps of seams bursting) apart the knots of the sashes that held Ravi’s robes in place with fingers that trembled with anticipation and oh, _oh—_

 _Oh_ gods _, Leo had him in his hand._

And his hand dragged his hand up and over him and Ravi couldn’t think and Leo didn’t seem much better because all he kept saying in his whisper soft voice as he a kept a jerky rhythm over Ravi was _“Pleasepleasepleaseplease”_

Ravi felt an impatient sound slip from his mouth as his hands found the sashes of Leo’s robes as well, not quite ripping them in his own haste but coming very damn close.

The noise that escaped Leo as Ravi finally closed a hand over him—hot and heavy, already more than slick in his arousal—was a broken thing as he immediately began to thrusting into Ravi’s hand just as frantically as he’d ground against his thigh.

 _Gods_ were they _both_ turned absolutely frantic in all the time they’d denied themselves if Ravi was more than fine in coming just like this and Leo looked and sounded too fucking _wrecked_ to do anything else but smash his lips back onto Ravi’s, less a kiss than just lips against lips, breath against breath as their hands kept far from steady rhythms over each other.

But while Ravi would have been fine like this (because finally, fucking _finally)_ it was the tiniest corner of his mind that was somehow still rational that screamed at him over the blinding curtain of his arousal that he could make it better, he could make it _so much better._ So it was with the greatest amount of effort that he managed to still his hand around Leo even as Leo fucking _growled_ and whined all in one and bit down on his lip in retaliation.

“ _Gods—_ just _fuck—_ just give me a second, okay, just let me—”

He pulled Leo’s hand away from where it still pumped him, the loss of contact an almost painful thing, and then sidled as close as he possibly could until their cocks rubbed against each other, causing him to let out a shaky sigh and Leo to let out another needy whimper. Leo had just started squirming against him again when Ravi lowered the hand that was still slick with Leo and grabbed both of them together, giving a tortuously slow drag up, and _gods that felt amazing—_

Leo’s breath hitched violently and he brought his hands back up to Ravi shoulders, clawing slender fingers into his robes as he whisper-screamed a “ _YES”_ shutting his eyes tight as he grabbed onto Ravi and rocked into his hand.

The drag of Leo’s cock against his own was making starburst of arousal break out across Ravi’s entire being and _oh fuck he wasn’t going to last long—_ not with the way Leo’s face was contorted into nothing but pleasure, not with the way he was he let out nothing but pleading whimpers into Ravi’s ear as he fucked into his hand and _shit he was gonna—_

And then Leo came with a gasp of Ravi’s name and pitch dark eyes hazy and unfocused in bliss before he shut them tightly and buried his face into Ravi’s neck, spilling all over Ravi’s hand, body tense in climax and grabbing hard enough onto Ravi’s shoulders that he was sure to find bruises the shape of Leo’s fingertips across them tomorrow.

But Ravi didn’t have long to contemplate how _good_ Leo sounded gasping out his name, how beautiful a portrait Leo’s features painted brushtroked with nothing but pleasure, because suddenly Ravi’s own orgasm was ripping through him and he was barely able to stop himself from biting down onto the smooth juncture of Leo’s neck and shoulder hard enough to draw blood. Instead, he just grit his teeth and growled out as his own release added onto Leo’s, helping the glide of his hand as he milked them both through it.

Leo’s face was still in the crook of Ravi’s neck and his breath still hot across Ravi’s skin as they slowly came down together. It took a long time for their breathing to slowly even out to relatively normal levels and it took Ravi an even a longer time than to muster the strength to remove his hand from the bedroll and wipe it haphazardly on the grass outside (and _fuck was it actually freezing outside_ ). He brought his hand back in and found himself hesitating then because Leo had still not moved and Ravi wasn’t exactly sure what he was supposed to do now. They’d both _very clearly_ wanted this, what with the almost embarrassingly short amount of time they’d both lasted, but Leo had still not said so much as a word—

“Uh, Leo—”

That was as far as Ravi got before he realized that Leo’s breathing had calmed down even farther than normal, down into a slow and deep rhythm.

Leo was _asleep._

Ravi found himself smiling fondly as he got comfortable and let Leo’s breaths lull him into a warm and dreamless slumber.  

***

Ravi woke to the jostle of Leo extricating himself out of their shared bedroll, the icy air let in from his departure doing more to wake up Ravi than Leo’s movements had.

Leo walked over to the dead remains of the fire they’d had the night before and kneeled down, face calm, as placid as it ever was, seemingly ready to carry on with the routine of their everyday, as if what they’d done the night before had never happened at all.

It was mostly unsurprising, really, something Ravi should have expected. Leo was not of the character to suddenly change his entire demeanor towards Ravi after one night together; Ravi had known him long enough to know that at least.

But it still made Ravi a little hesitant, a little uncertain about how he should approach what they’d done. Should he mention anything or should carry on like Leo was doing, as if nothing had really happened at all?

He’d still been debating, taking in Leo’s still form and lasting longer in getting up than usual when he caught Leo’s gaze wandering downward. It wasn’t until his eyes landed on the front of his robe, to the tell-tale signs of white that were the result of their carelessness the night before, their desperation to get their hands on each other after months of denial of what they both knew they wanted, that any type of emotion showed on Leo’s face.

Leo’s features morphed from their usual passivity into one of pure _disgust._

It hit Ravi harder than he was prepared for.

Disregard he could handle, the lack of any type of acknowledgment that whatever their relationship was had changed, hell he could have taken this being a one-time thing only (at least he’d got to hear what Leo sounded with Ravi’s name gasped through his lips _once)_ —

But _disgust?_

_Regret?_

At what they’d done, when Ravi had been so sure he’d felt the same desperation in Leo’s hands and touch that he’d been feeling since _so fucking long ago?_

It _hurt,_ it was—

But then Leo’s gaze had come up and crashed into Ravi’s own, eyes narrowing into slits of accusation as he’d opened his mouth  and with a voice as soft as ever said,

“Be more careful next time.”

_Next time._

And suddenly Ravi could breath, the maelstrom of emotions whirling in his head stopping to nothing and all he could do at that point was laugh. He laughed as relief, fresh and sweet, washed over him despite the fact that Leo’s eyes had narrowed even more than he thought possible as he took in Ravi’s humor.

He pulled himself out of the bedroll, reaching down to untie and remove his own suitably stained robe and he was still chuckling when he finally walked over to Leo, holding a hand out expectantly as Leo fixed him with a glare colder still.

His voice warbled in his efforts to keep it steady as he spoke. “I’ll be more careful next time, but if I remember correctly _you_ were the first one to not exactly be careful—or quiet really.”

He couldn’t stop the chuckle that his sentence ended on, because as he recalled it had been Leo’s hands who’d first reached into his own robes.

Leo’s stare turned _frigid_ but all Ravi could do was smile as he continued.

“Here, just give me your robe, I’ll wash it along with mine.”

Leo’s eyes were still ice as he worked his robe off but there was a softness around the edges that Ravi did not miss when he finally handed it over.

There was a stream nearby, Ravi would wash them there.

***

They’d been getting ready for bed the next night, beginning to roll out their bedrolls when Leo had spoken with eyes that didn’t stray from his hands even as his words were directed at Ravi.

“Since it seems we both have no aversions to sharing a bedroll it would be more convenient, especially since as you mentioned before it is winter, for us to keep sharing one. If that would be acceptable to you.”

Ravi was glad Leo was still not looking his way, he couldn’t stop the smile that stretched across his face at his words.

“Yeah, I wouldn’t mind that.”

They slept (just slept) together that night.

They also slept together all the nights that followed, but those were fair game as to whether sleep was the only thing that occurred.

***

They were bathing at a spring they’d stumbled upon, washing away days of traveling and Ravi had been doing his utmost best—and failing—at _not_ staring at Leo and the pale shapes of his body (because it seemed like it was never going to matter how many times he had that same pale skin underneath his palms or his mouth, his eyes never got tired of looking at him) when Leo suddenly met his eyes and did not look away.

He walked over to Ravi, his movements causing ripples in the otherwise calm spring, and Ravi was only slightly startled when he felt cool fingers land over the top of his right shoulder, ghosting over the raised scar that began there and extended down across his back, his own permanent reminder of the day he and Leo first met.

They both remained silent as Leo took his hand back only to bring it up to his own puckered scar on his left shoulder.

“It’s fitting, don’t you think. One wound bound your life to me and the other set it free.”

Ravi didn’t respond to that and Leo did not give him much of a chance to anyways, he averted his eyes and walked away towards shore once the silence had stretched on a bit farther than too long.

Ravi turned around to finish bathing, but as he did, he couldn’t help but think.

_That’s not exactly right now is it? One bound my life to you and the other made me realize that I never really wanted it back._

***

It was his first time in the market when he met her, walking down the crowded street, eyes glancing over stalls without really stopping at any one in particular.

A shout of the utmost profanity is what drew his attention to one stall in particular, just in time to see what was no doubt a thief taking off with what looked like a cashbox and a slender looking woman going after with what looked like—

 _Is that a knife?_ Ravi thought a little incredulously as he watched the scene play out before him.

The thief was getting farther and farther away from the woman, darting quickly and agilely through the crowd in what seemed like a practiced manner despite the woman’s best efforts and her constant stream of _very_ colorful words as she pursued him.

But the thief’s mistake was running _towards_ Ravi and it was with very minimal effort that Ravi stuck a foot out, and using the thief’s own momentum, barreled him stomach first into Ravi’s fist _._ While the thief wheezed for air, Ravi aimed a blow to his temple that had the man slipping into unconsciousness immediately, the cashbox he’d been holding falling from his grasp and into the dirt.

The woman who this thief had no doubt just stolen from had caught up soon after and it was through panting breaths and halted words that she continued to insult the now unconscious burglar before her as she bent to pick up her cashbox.

“You—piece—of thieving— _horse shit!_ ”

Once she had her money safely in her hands again, she’d brandished her knife threateningly,

“Why I oughta—cut off your—”she swallowed another labored breath “ _pathetic_ excuse for manhood in your sleep!”

And she seemed hell bent on leaning down and doing just that when she was startled out of her focus by the loud laughter that burst from Ravi’s chest.

But Ravi hadn’t been able to help himself, here was this waif of a woman brandishing a knife and threatening to castrate someone with it.

It was only once he wiped the tears of mirth from his eyes that he was able to look at her properly.

She was grown, a woman now in all sense of the word, but there was a childness in her eyes that Ravi couldn’t miss even at first glance and when she smiled she was suddenly so much like Evey that it _hurt—_ old wounds that Ravi knew would never really be healed torn open again, memories washing in like blood red floodwaters.

Her hair was the same chestnut brown as Evey’s had been only kept shoulder length instead of flowing silken waves. Her face was tanned and freckled as compared to what his sister’s paler features had been and she was also a good portion taller than Evey and only a little shorter than Ravi now.

She’d began speaking as Ravi had stood, still taking in all that reminded him of his sister.

“Well sir, I expect I should be thanking you right about now, damn thief thought he could make away with my well earned money, the worthless lowlife sack of dog shit.”

She aimed a kick at the unconscious man as she said it.

“But then you came along and made short work of him! Not that I wouldn’t have given the beating of a lifetime if I could have caught up to the speedy little rat first.”

Ravi in no way doubted the truth in her words.

She aimed another impressive smile at him, all teeth and crinkles around her eyes, and she stuck out her hand (the one _not_ holding the knife) out for Ravi to shake.

“The names Lily, I run he freshest flower stand you’ll find in the whole damn city and don’t let anybody tell you any different. A very, _very,_ big thanks for helping me out today, I owe you a big one for this.”

_Lily._

Well, Lily was loud and she was boisterous, and considering the fact that Ravi wasn’t all too certain she would have actually stopped her original plans of castration had he not interrupted her, she was headstrong and not one for idle threats.

She seemed wild where Evey had been calm, outspoken where Evey had always chosen her words carefully, but there was a light in her eyes, a warmth, (that even just having met her, Ravi could tell was there) the same type Evey had had and again Ravi felt such a wave of _longing_ that it almost made him stagger.

But at her sincere gratitude and at the light that her smile radiated all Ravi could do was take her offered hand push the pain back smile and say.

“Ravi. So Lily, what have you got for sale.”

***

Ravi came back with a handful of flowers that night.

At Leo’s questioning gaze he explained all that happened and Leo seemed _almost_ amused as he told her about Lily and her thwarted attempts to amputate certain male body parts.

He rummaged around their room to find a cup that could work as makeshift vase for the half dozen flowers he’d brought with him and as he settled the stalks into the water he also happened to glance in Leo’s direction.

Leo was watching him more keenly than his actions of putting flowers in water warranted and he managed to catch the tail end of some sort of emotion flit across Leo’s eyes before he blinked and they once again turned into their usual placid pools.

They settled down to eat soon afterwards.

***

Ravi began spending a lot of his time in the market as they waited for any type of lead to a new job. They had enough money to live here comfortably for a good amount of time but they were always on the lookout for their next contract, it was their way of life.

In the meantime, he spent a lot of his time with Lily, lounging around her stall, helping her collect flowers once he learned that she went _alone_ to relatively far off fields and meadows to collect her merchandise.

Ravi found himself smiling just a little bit more than usual, the memory of Evey not _quite_ as painful when it would flash across his mind because being around Lily, it felt—

It felt like having a sister.

And it felt _good,_ having someone like that again, a sister he could protect _._

Because he was finally old enough, strong enough, that he _could._

_***_

Leo met Lily one fine sunny day in the middle of the market’s busiest hour.

Ravi had already spoken of him to Lily (a little more extensively than was needed probably), and the day before he planned on dragging Leo to the town square he’d made it a point to explain a little bit more, just to make absolutely sure she knew what to expect. He knew Leo could be a little hard to understand sometimes—especially after barely meeting him—and for some reason it felt important to him that Lily and Leo should not get the wrong impression of each other. So he explained about Leo’s taciturn demeanor and his cold aura, told her not to be offended if he didn’t really speak to her, not to be alarmed or scared if he just kinda stared, because yeah Leo could be intimidating with his deep dark eyes, and the way he carried himself, always self-aware, always graceful, beautifully lethal—

And he’d stopped after that, having realized that he was rambling and that Lily had really wormed his way under his skin and under the usual wariness he expended to people that weren’t Leo because he’d just called Leo beautiful _out loud_ –

He’d felt a blush creep its way up to his cheeks as he ducked his head but Lily had just laughed at him, a look in her eye as she told him that it would take a lot more to scare her off than a grumpy swordsman.

The meeting itself wasn’t much of an event. Lily had been Lily, sincere and radiant as she extended a hand for Leo to take, remarking that’s she’d heard a lot about him from Ravi already.

Ravi had warmed slightly at that but was grateful that Leo hadn’t been looking at him to notice.

Leo had been polite, no friendlier and no colder than when he usually met strangers, but for some reason Ravi thought he’d looked a bit—rigid almost, as he extended his hand.

Still the meeting went well and Leo had left with a few bought flowers of his own, had even managed the shadow of smile that was all he normally gave at Lily’s ever inventive vocabulary as she animatedly recounted the day she first met Ravi.

As they walked back to their room Leo spoke, “Lily, she is a very…bright girl.”

Ravi was pleasantly surprised at that, Leo seemed have liked Lily pretty well if he had decided to pay her any type of compliments.

So he smiled widely at him, warmth in his eyes from Lily and Leo alike, “Yeah, she really is, I’m—I’m just really glad I was able to meet her here.”

There was another flicker of something across Leo’s eyes, but again it was barely a ripple, gone before Ravi had really been able to register it.

They walked in silence after that.

***

Leo was being distant.

Leo was always a bit distant, but this—

This was different.

It was so very different, and Ravi didn’t know how or when or why.

It’d started a few weeks ago, when they’d retired to bed and Ravi had glued himself to Leo’s back like he usually did, and then his hands had started to wander like they sometimes did, and Leo had tensed for a fraction of a second, quick enough to mistake for something else but Ravi knew him well enough.

He’d tensed and then he’d relaxed and he’d said nothing as his breathing had fallen deeper and deeper into sleep. But it was a forced relaxation, mechanical, and Ravi knew that Leo was not actually being pulled into slumber, knew the deepening of his breath was more by force than by any natural calling of sleep.

So Ravi had stilled his wandering hands had buried his face into Leo’s neck instead and slept.

But in the back of his mind he knew that there was something wrong.

In the next few days, Leo started acting cold.

***

Leo wasn’t speaking.

Not that Leo didn’t usually forgo words unless they were absolutely necessary; Ravi had learned early on in their travels that conversation with Leo consisted of Ravi doing most of the talking and Leo adding in a few sparse when he deemed them necessary to keep the conversation flowing.

And Ravi had been fine with that, he’d realized quickly enough that silence from Leo did not necessarily mean dismissal or a distaste for Ravi’s company, it was just who he was. In their time together Ravi had learned to appreciate the comfort that silence could bring.

But the silence between them was anything but comfortable these days, it was Leo not muttering a word to him if Ravi was not the one to explicitly initiate conversation, it was Leo resorting to nods or gestures whenever they could replace speaking.

Ravi did not understand why. True they’d been a couple months here already and _still_ looking for work, but they had a couple more months in coin (three if they were really frugal) and they were sellswords, very _good_ sellswords, there would always be jobs for them. So Ravi really didn’t think it was frustration over that.

But Ravi didn’t know how to approach  it and Leo seemed so closed off that he wasn’t sure he’d even say anything should Ravi ask or he would just stare at him in stony silence.

As the days passed the silence in their shared room was turning into a substantial thing, _suffocating,_ heavier and heavier and Ravi felt himself  drawn to the city market even more than he’d had previously, the easy presence that was Lily never failing to offer relief to the tightening feeling of foreboding in his chest. He was visiting her almost daily now and she certainly didn’t complain, always welcomed his presence with a smile and _conversation_.

So Ravi had been startled one morning after breakfast as he’d been tying his sword to his sash in preparation to leave when Leo spoke to him _willingly_ without Ravi being the one to initiate the conversation.

“Ravi—?”

Leo hesitated, Leo never hesitated, always had his words thought out before he spoke them but Ravi was so stunned that he just stared and answered with an eloquent.

“Uh?”

“You—are you—”

There was something in Leo’s eyes as he looked at Ravi, something almost fragile in sharp contrast to the cold tranquility he always wore, but then his eyes had swept across the room and landed on the vase full of various flowers which Ravi kept adding more and more to each day and his eyes had turned blank.

“You’re going to the market.”

It was less a question than it was a statement and Ravi answered truthfully despite Leo’s odd flat tone.

“Yeah, going to see Lily, promised I’d go with her to gather some flowers outside of the city.”

Leo looked at him with a blank stare, as unreadable as Ravi had ever seen his porcelain features set before he spoke out a soft “Oh” and turned around to set his bowl of mostly uneaten food away.

His back was the end of the conversation and it was so brief and curt among the silence that’d pervaded their lives that Ravi left their room with his hands balled into fist at his sides.

***

Lily had been stooped over, using shears to cut flowers at their stems and dividing them into different piles all around her when she’d stilled suddenly and brought her head up to speak in Ravi’s direction.

“So, Leo, he’s your battle companion and… your lover?”

There was mischievousness twinkling in her eyes as Ravi narrowly avoided choking on air, the beginnings of a smirk dancing on her lips.

But even if Ravi had been startled at the forwardness of her question—for while a pairing between a man and a man was not an uncommon thing, especially in battle companions, there were still some people who held certain qualms about it and Ravi was glad to see Lily was not one of them—his answer came quickly to his lips, almost without thought.

“He’s more than that, he’s—”

Because Leo _was_ more than that.

More than just someone to satisfy his desire with, more than just the sexual partner society often saw male companions as, forgotten as soon as one found a woman to settle down with.

He was so much more than that to Ravi but—

What exactly was Ravi was to Leo?

“Well, at least to me he is.”

He knew that his uncertainty came out plainly, it was in the timbre of his voice, and Lily was quick to pick up on it.

It showed in the way her brow crinkled just slightly, in the way her eyes reflected her questions, unspoken, but there nonetheless, an invitation to Ravi to keep speaking if he wanted to but _only_ if he wanted to. She would not pry further, not into something that his short answer had already managed to label as extremely personal, extremely sensitive.

But suddenly Ravi needed to talk, needed to unload all that he felt. There had been exactly no one he could speak to in all of this, not to Leo when he was the subject of his turmoil, not when he was being so distant and _cold_.

He needed this and so his mouth opened like floodgates to the river of his words, its waters gaining speed in their intensity the longer he spoke.

“He’s more than that, to _me,_ but…he’s so hard to read on the best of days and even then I have no idea where I stand with him. Half the time he holds on to me so tightly in the middle of the night it’s like he believes I’m going to disappear and the other half he’s as cold as the first day I met him when I thought he was my own personal grim reaper. But Leo is not the type of person to keep you around if he didn’t want you, and I’m still here, have been with him for _years_ and he’s never given me any reason to believe he hasn’t _wanted_ me there, as a battle companion if nothing else, but he won’t _look at me_ now and he won’t _speak_ to me and he won’t _touch me_ and I don’t know what’s wrong or what I did and I’m too  god damn terrified to ask because I don’t know if I can take his answer.”

His breathing had picked up by time he finished and he looked up in time to see Lily gazing at him with worry.

“I—I thought we were more than just companions who only bed together because there’s no one else— _fuck,_ I _want_ to be more than that—but he—I don’t think, I don’t know if he—and I know it’s pathetic, that I won’t ask, that I’m content to just sit there and take his silence because I’m so scared that if he speaks it’ll be to say that he doesn’t want any of this anymore, that he—that he doesn’t want  whatever it was he was getting from being with me. It’s _fucking pathetic,_ but when it comes to him… I realized a long time ago that when it comes to Leo,” he gave a wry smile, “I’ll take whatever I can get.”

The silence had stretched on just a bit longer than too long when she opened her mouth to begin speaking, only to have Ravi cut her off.

“We should go, it’s getting dark.”

She looked up to the sky at Ravi’s words, had looked back at him with gentleness in her eyes, but she nodded nonetheless, beginning to tie the flowers scattered around her into bundles.

Ravi was thankful she’d said no more.

He’d needed to speak, that was true, but having said the words aloud suddenly made them that much more true and Ravi wasn’t ready for that, didn’t know if he ever would be, didn’t know what exactly he would do if Leo no longer wanted him there one day.

She finished tying her last bundle, loading them into the rickshaw she always brought for trips like these, frowning good-naturedly as Ravi batted away her attempts at pulling the cart herself back to town.  As they walked in silence, she chose to speak again.

“I’m not good at being subtle and you know it, but if you ever _do_ want to keep talking about this, you know I’m here. I’ll listen—and I’ll _only_ listen—if that’s all you need.”

He smiled at her kindness.

“And I’ll smack some sense into your grumpy swordsman boyfriend if you need me to too, you know I will.”

That earned a chuckle as Ravi responded.

“I know, thank you.”

The smile she returned was much softer than her usual blinding ones, and again it was so much like Evey that it was like the first time he’d met her all over again, bringing on its own ache of sadness to what he’d already been feeling.

***

By the time they made it back to town it was indeed growing dark already.

He bade Lily farewell and made for his lodgings and when he entered Leo was already asleep, retired early as had been happening more and more lately, curled up the farthest away on his side of their shared bed, back to him.

Ravi felt his emotions start whirling again, sadness confusion, resentment…anger.

His vision began blurring but he wiped at his eyes furiously, refusing to admit that they stung with something more than just weariness.

He untied his sword from his robes, stripped down and made his way over, laid himself down as far away from Leo’s curled form as he could manage, wondering if tonight would be one of those nights were he woke to Leo clinging to him only for the pale swordsman to acknowledge nothing the next day.

He closed his eyes and slept and dreamt of the day Leo first found him, only this time Leo didn’t save him, this time he felt the cold of his grim reaper’s sword instead.

***

It was a few weeks later and on the same day that Ravi noticed such tenseness in Leo—a rigidity in his shoulders that made Ravi tired just looking at him—that the swordsman _finally_ spoke more than a few words in Ravi’s direction.

He’d stood before Ravi and knelt, laid his sword at his side in deference and bowed.

Weeks of silence and Leo was _bowing_ to him _._

Then he spoke and his words were deadly, cutting like the blade Leo wielded so effortlessly.

“My path is that of a sellsword, it always has been, but now I see that _your_ path is that of sellsword no longer; your path leads here, to this town, to Lily and to the life you can have with her. I wish you the happiest life and it is here that I choose to part ways with you and thank you for the time we have spent together. It has been my greatest honor to fight alongside you as a companion and if there is but one thing I do not regret in my life, it was choosing to save you all those years ago.”

By the time Leo’s soft voice had murmured out “ _your path_ ” Ravi had felt dread wash over him like ice water, felt the scar he still bore on his back twinge in renewed hurt when it never really bothered him before.

This is was it, this was why he’d never brought himself to ask, what he’d been so _goddamn terrified_ of Leo saying to him that he’d hid behind their heavy silence and uneasy coexistence for _weeks_ , sad and angry and confused but unwilling to do anything to alleviate it if it meant he was allowed one more day at Leo’s side.

When “ _part ways with you_ ” fell from Leo’s lips like silken poison Ravi felt awareness of what was around him fade, his mind suddenly stuffed with cotton, the only thing avoiding that blurry haze being Leo himself—Leo and his lips that kept moving and forming more words, words like “honor” and “companion” and “ _regret”._  

There was ringing in the silence Leo’s words left behind  when he finished, head and body still bowed and Ravi couldn’t think, because Leo—Leo he was—he was _leaving?_

But, this—it was—

It was _agony._

Leo was choosing to leave, choosing to leave Ravi  _willingly,_ because he thought—

Because he thought Ravi had a life here.

A life here with Lily.

Leo was choosing to leave because he _thought—_ thought that Ravi had found a woman to settle down with like all battle companions were supposed to do, because what they felt was never supposed to be more than carnal and Leo was just being a good companion, letting him go like this, without any type of regard for the years of intimacy they’d shared. It was that easy to him, he was—he was—

He was just letting it all go.

Suddenly, Ravi felt the anguish that’d clenched his heart be replaced oh so swiftly with something just as strong, something that bubbled and raged.

He was _livid._

Leo was letting him go, with nothing but a few sparse sentences after weeks of silence, after Ravi had thought that they’d meant more to one another than that—he’d thought—he’d _hoped_ —

Leo chose that exact moment to lift his head up from his bow and whatever he saw in Ravi’s eyes made him show emotion, finally, after months of features set in marble. His face contorted in surprise as he flinched back and Ravi couldn’t have stopped himself from lunging at him if he’d tried.

He caught him by the lapels of his robes, dragged him close enough that he could see Leo’s pupils narrow as they focused in on the face suddenly centimeters away from his own.

“I did not know that my affection for you meant so little as to be discarded so easily.”

The words tumbled from his mouth without any conscious thought, and he was almost certain he was reacting to them at the same time that Leo was, what with the speed and lack of any forethought that they left his mouth.

“Yes, I love Lily—as the sister that was ripped away from me long, long ago, but it is _you_ who I had already decided my path led to years ago, _you_ who I said I would choose to live alongside, and _you_ who I had believed chose the same—yet you bow to me and tell me that it is here _you_ choose to part ways, to _leave—_ I pledged my life to you out of debt and when you set me free I gave it back to you _willingly,_ now tell me! Do I mean so little to you that you could walk away from me so easily! Did I always mean so little? Was I just a warm body to fuck in the lone traveling’s of a sellsword! Was that all this ever was!”

This close he could clearly see Leo’s features morph, his face as expressive as Ravi had ever seen it. When it settled, it settled onto one single emotion so clearly that Ravi didn’t have to have known Leo for years to recognize it.

Confusion.

Such utter and blatant confusion and it was all that was needed to answer Ravi’s question.

That _was_ all Ravi had ever been to him, just somebody to fuck, someone who’d been more than willing— Leo had never specified any different. That had all been Ravi.

The hurt came back again, and if Ravi thought it wasn’t possibly to hurt more than he already had, he’d been wrong, he’d been so so wrong.

He could feel the sharp sting of tears but Ravi would be damned if he let Leo see him cry because he’d been naive and _foolish_ and he’d _thought_ —

He pushed Leo away just as suddenly as he grabbed onto him.

Leo didn’t need to bother to leave, as soon as Ravi collected his sword and the sparse belonging in this room that they’d shared, _he’d_ leave, no matter that it was nighttime already, he wouldn’t stay here for a second longer, he _couldn’t—_

Leo ran into him with such force he knocked them both to the ground.

Ravi felt the air leave his lungs as Leo landed on top of him and he was—he was—

 _Gods_ , Leo was _crying._

He spoke and his voice trembled and Ravi had _never_ heard him speak in that tone before.

“My life is yours. My life has been yours. Since before I gave you your freedom I knew—it’s just that—I thought—someone as cold as I am, you can’t _be_ with someone like me, you _shouldn’t_ be—the only life I know is that which takes other lives and I _know_ you can have something different—but I didn’t want to leave—I don’t want _you_ to leave— but I—why would you _ever_ choose me—I—”

_I shouldn’t be with someone like you._

_Me?_

And Ravi wanted to yell at him suddenly, wanted to grab his face and _scream_  because was Leo _insane?!?_

Ravi had never wanted anybody more than he’d wanted Leo, had never felt even a _shade_ of what he felt for him for anybody else and Leo was telling him that he felt the same, that his _life was Ravi’s_ —

Leo had _chosen_ him but he would leave him even if he didn’t want to because Ravi could have something _better_ —?

But Leo had chosen him.

In the end that was the thought that echoed around in Ravi’s mind.

Leo was _choosing him._

His arms came up and around Leo without conscious thought, clamping onto the shaking body above him, wanting to capture Leo and hold him as if he was ephemeral and would float away if Ravi did not hold on tight enough.

Leo had chosen and now he needed to know, to _finally without a doubt know,_ that Ravi chose too, that’d he’d chosen the same since the first time he’d stared into his pitch dark eyes.

“ _I_ choose to give my life to you, _willingly,_ it will forever be yours.”

Leo looked up then and when Ravi could finally see his face it was a mess, his usually pale complexion blotchy and uneven, eyes swollen and red, but he wore a smile that was so broken and so _happy_ at the same time that it cracked Ravi’s heart at the same time that it mended it.

With eyes that were crinkled in warmth Leo responded.

“Then I give you mine as well.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know this is really not that long compared to other fics out there but it's the longest thing I've ever sat down and continuously written and I honestly feel like a little bit of my soul went into it.
> 
> I hope you all enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it!
> 
> There is one short epilogue left after this chapter which will be posted up very soon, it just has to be edited ^^
> 
> P.S. I _know_ there's some mistakes in here, especially with tenses, but after rereading it for the umpteenth time I figured I could post it finally, that being said if you do spot some of the mistakes I missed please don't hesitate to tell me!


	3. Epilogue

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Less of an epilogue and more of just a bonus really, picks up right where the last chapter left off :)

They made love that night for the first time in such a long time and Ravi had thought it would be fast and desperate, much like the first time they’d lain together, weeks of frustration and confusion fueling their want of each other. But it was the farthest from that it could possibly be and it was _so good,_ because now Ravi knew he had the right to, he could look and touch and linger all he wanted because that was also what Leo wanted.

It had taken them weeks of tense silence and unspoken emotions and uncertainty and hurt but Ravi finally knew.

He was Leo’s and Leo was _his,_ and the thought made something ache within him.

They tumbled onto the bed and Leo’s cheeks were still wet with tears as they kissed and when Ravi began trying to remove their clothing Leo clutched onto him almost desperately, making the job much harder than it needed to be, seeming loath to let go of him for the few seconds needed to slip their robes from their shoulders.

But they finally shed their clothes, laid naked, Leo under Ravi as they just kissed and touched and explored, hands roaming every inch of skin they could reach, lips endlessly moving against each other, slow and soft, content to just let the warmth of each other’s bodies seep into their bones. But regardless of the hazy aura they were all too pleased to bask in they still _wanted_ and Ravi had just started to ask what it was exactly that Leo wanted that night—because he would give Leo anything he asked, had been prepared to give him _everything_ the first time he’d lain eyes on him—when Leo had cut him off.

He brought strong slender legs up to wrap around Ravi’s waist, tightening his hold as he rocked up against him, voice breathless as he spoke.

“I want you, _please,_ I want—I need to _feel_ you.”

And Ravi complied, fumbled by their bedside for the bottle of mostly untouched oil that they’d put there when they’d first rented out this space, slicked his fingers and worked Leo open slow and careful, leaving him panting, whimpering and responsive to even the smallest movements of his hand. Ravi would have continued like that too—completely mesmerized in the way Leo’s face was so open, how his eyes were almost lost as he bit his lip and just _looked_ at Ravi, his gaze burning wherever it landed, burning into him— _gods Ravi never wanted Leo to stop looking at him like that_ —but Leo clasped onto Ravi’s arms while he still stared and pleaded softly, an almost timidness in his voice that was usually never present.

“Please, now—I—I need you _now.”_

And again, Ravi could only obey.

He slicked himself up hurriedly, suddenly just as anxious to feel Leo too, and he’d barely pushed in but it already had Leo throwing his head back and gasping, pale neck arched and throat working soundlessly, eyes shut tight. Ravi drank in that sight as he slowly pressed forward, mind full of nothing but _Leo_ and being surrounded by him in every way possible and he was _his, Leo was letting Ravi keep him—_

Leo’s hands that had been fisted in the thin sheets below him suddenly reached up and around Ravi, strong arms pulling him down closer, bodies flush from hips to chest, no inch of space between them, so that with the minimal room he had all Ravi could do was rock into Leo achingly slow.

It was nowhere near the pace they usually set, not even close, but it was almost overwhelming in its intensity despite that, and it was what they wanted and what they _needed_ because all too soon Leo was coming—breath a warm puff across Ravi’s neck, pale legs and arms tightening around Ravi so hard it almost hurt.

Ravi didn’t last much longer than that, not with the way he could _feel_ Leo’s pleasure. He could already feel heat starting to course through him but it was a warm wave of sensation across his body instead of the usual frenzied surge of electricity. He buried his face in Leo’s neck and groaned as Leo brought slender fingers to card through Ravi’s hair, dropping quiet kisses to his temple and wherever his lips could reach, grounding Ravi as pleasure burned through him.

They lay side by side afterwards, face to face, legs tangled and arms firm around each other, breathing in each other’s air in their proximity. As Ravi stared into Leo’s eyes—so unguarded, as unguarded as they’d ever been and dripping in emotion, in _affection—_ he wanted so badly to say it, to say—

_I love you._

_I’ve loved you for so long now._

But he didn’t, felt like he couldn’t, and he didn’t know exactly why, just knew that this moment felt strangely fragile, despite all they’d confessed to each other only moments before.

Yet he still wanted to tell Leo—no, _needed_ to tell Leo and the words were like whispered waves breaking out of his mouth before he could stop them. He only barely managed to change them at the last second, hoping they would still be enough to convey just how much he _needed._

“Let me keep you, _please.”_

Leo kissed him, soft and sweet, pulled away and smiled and said,

“I have been yours to keep for a very long time now.”

Leo was the first to fall asleep, tangled in Ravi’s arms, and as slumber also began pulling at Ravi there was one thought that lingered in his mind.

He had a lifetime ahead of him with this man and the thought was the most beautifully daunting thing he had ever looked forward to in his entire life.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I can honestly say this is the sappiest thing I have ever written oaijgaorjga
> 
> But yay Bound is finally finished! Working on this fic was an experience but something I very, very much enjoyed. Like I said before it's the longest thing I've sat down and completely written from beginning to end and I don't know, I feel very emotionally invested now x)
> 
> Again, hope you all enjoyed reading this as much as I did writing it!
> 
> P.S. Who knoooows, maybe we'll see Hyuk and Hongbin in the future sometime soon......


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